Finding the Lost
{| width="100%" | align="left" valign="top" width="33%" | Information Steps: # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Outer Court) (3,2) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Outer Court) (15,4) # Go to Sanctuary Outer Item Sales (15,15) #* Purchase Glowing Oracle Gem Blueprint #* Assemble Glowing Oracle Gem # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Oracle Chamber) (2,2) #* Deliver Glowing Oracle Gem # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Outer Court) (15,4) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Outer Court) (3,2) # Attain Level 146 # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Causeway) (2,5) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Causeway) (6,12) #* Receive Empty Id Convergence Blueprint # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Causeway) (11,17) #* Purchase Sanctuary Psi Store Blueprint #* Purchase Empowered Id Convergence Blueprint #* Assemble Empty Id Convergence #* Assemble 2 Sanctuary Psi Store #* Assemble Empowered Id Convergence # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Crystal Vault) (2, 2) #* Deliver Empowered Id Convergence # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Causeway) (6,12) # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Causeway) (2,5) # Attain Level 148 # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Colonnade) (2,2 ) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Colonnade) (2,14 ) #* Purchase Sanctuary Colonnade Pass Blueprint #* Assemble Sanctuary Colonnade Pass # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Colonnade) (14,9 ) # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Colonnade) (2,2 ) # Attain Level 150 # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Cradle of Stars) (3,8) #* Kill 60 Altus Sphere of Ages # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Cradle of Stars) (3,8) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Naos) (2,2) # Go to Sanctuary of Ages (Naos) (7,9) #* Kill 1 Echo Decimator (Elite) # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Naos) (7,9) # Return to Sanctuary of Ages (Naos) (2,2) Rewards: * 502,883 XP * 32 Skill Points | align="left" valign="top" width="67%" | Details Garion looks around the strange place you came out in. He mumbles incoherently. Sentences are left unfinished as he tries to process what is before him. 'What is this place... the Spiral is everywhere.' He turns to you bewildered, 'What does it mean?' He stares at you in astonishment, 'The Altus, but they are a myth! Legends that walked the stars bringing peace and knowledge to any who would listen. But there is no evidence of Altus buildings or artifacts anywhere in the Universe.' You look at him pityingly, 'Until now.' He bristles with anger, 'I will not jump to conclusions. More work must be done to verify if this an Altus building. Which would go against all current scientific thinking. The Altus were practically gods. Their technology could shape entire worlds if the legends are to be believed.' He turns to you angrily, 'Which they are NOT! Now go see if you can find sign of my students, and we shall have no more of this Altus nonsense.' The halls of this place are ancient beyond your wildest dreams. You know instinctively that the people who built this place were a powerful race. But you can see no recognizable technology. No computer screens or cables. Just high stone chambers, and the Spiral mark everywhere. It is an oddly restful place. As you walk you suddenly hear distant footsteps. You run after the sound and eventually find an oddly dressed Purist. He sees you and stops instantly, 'You are not of the Spiral, where did you come from?' You tell him that you are with Garion looking for his lost Students. At the name the Purist grabs at you, 'Lord Garion is here?! Take me to him at once..' You frown at the Purist, 'I'm taking you nowhere until you tell me who you are.' The young man sighs deeply, 'We came through the Gate and found ourselves here. We couldn't believe we had discovered an Altus Temple. We started to explore it immediately, it wasn't long before we discovered the Oracle Orb. We were shocked when it spoke to us. It told us to close the Gate and then it would talk to us again. We didn't think about it. We just did it. We had found an Altus artifact that speaks. The scientific importance is unimaginable. We..' You hold up your hand, 'I take it you are one of his Students, can you take me to this Oracle Orb?' The young man shakes his head. 'Only one of the Spiral may talk to the Oracle, and only when summoned. We all carry an oracle Gem. It glows when we are needed. If you want to speak with the Oracle, you will need to acquire a Glowing Oracle Gem before the Oracle Will Speak to you. I'll wait here until your done.' The chamber is small and dimly lit. In the center stands a pedestal with a stone Orb resting on it. Your fingers touch the cold surface of the Orb. Immediately the world goes black, a soft voice echoes in your mind. 'I do not know you. You are different from all the others. Your mind is unusual. Who are you?' The voice is kind, but you sense authority behind it. You tell the voice your name and are about to explain why you are here when the voice interrupts you, 'Only those who have been accepted by Sanctuary may stay here. You are not of the Spiral designation. I must ask you to leave.' The Orb goes silent, you know that it will not speak again to you. You should go back to the Terrified Purist. The Purist walks round in small circles muttering to himself. He jumps at your voice, 'Ah – I didn't expect to see you again. I thought the others would have got their hands on you. Glad to see they haven't. Can you take me to Lord Garion now?' You should take the Purist to Garion. You find Garion pacing impatiently, 'Did you find out any news about my Students?' You step aside and explain that the Students have been accepted for Sanctuary by the Facility. It seems that to do so you must be a part of a group. They evidently called themselves the Spiral and have taken to dress in this odd way. Garion stares at the Student. Anger builds within him, 'Why are you dressed like that?' the Student shrinks from him as if burned. 'The Sanctuary provided it for us. It seemed rude not to wear them.' Garion breaths deeply and composes himself, 'Where are the rest of them?' The Student looks at the floor. 'My Lord, the others are mentally unstable. This place is not healthy for the Psionicly Sensitive. I don't know why. But the Altus Artifacts are also dangerous. It's the energies they give off. I can understand why they never gave out their tools or weapons to other races. Too much exposure warps the mind. We must leave here are soon as possible, or we will be driven mad as well.' Garion turns away from you both, 'I'm not leaving until I know for sure that all my Students are lost to me. I have met some of these Spiral while you were away. They didn't even recognize me. Maybe the stronger ones might have more resistance to the toxic nature of this place. He turns back to look at the Student. 'And how did you stop yourself from going mad?' The Student quakes before his old Mentor. 'I repeated the Base Mantras of the Mind.' Garion smiles for the first time since entering the Sanctuary. 'Excellent, you remembered your basics even in this stressful situation. You have done well my Student. Very well indeed.' The Student blinks in astonishment, Garion looks around, 'All Orders have a Leader, I must see this Spirals one.' The Student straightens slightly, 'The most talented of us became Adepts, they are in the Causeway. A reward for their raw talent was to go deeper into the Sanctuary.' Garion glances at you, 'Looks like we have a destination Unit. I shall meet you in the Causeway.' Garion stands in the Causeway, his Student beside him. They are in deep conversation, but they wave you over when they see you. Garion seems to be much more at ease now he has found one of his Students. 'I'm sorry Unit, but my Student and I have much to catch up with. Can you find the Leader of the Spiral please, I shall be here if you do manage to find him.' The Causeway stretches out before you. Rich columns line the main avenue. Standing in the middle of the road an Adept of the Spiral chatters to himself. You are very wary of this person. His mind seems to be in tatters. He looks like he can't follow his own train of thought. As if he cannot concentrate on one idea because other ones keep popping up and he can't decide which one is more important to think about. You slowly wave at him in a hope to get his attention. At first he does not seem to see you, then suddenly his eyes snap into focus. 'You do not wear the robes of the Spiral. Who are you?' You struggle to form a lie, but under the Adepts unblinking stare you can't seem to make one. 'I'm looking for the Leader of the Spiral. I was told to come here. Do you know where the Leader is?' The Adept chuckles, 'We found the Chamber of the Oracle quickly. It gave us guidance in the ways of the Altus. They have astonishing knowledge. But we gained acceptance by the Sanctuary and were allowed into the Causeway. Here we found another Chamber, this one didn't have an Orb. But rather a Crystal Pillar. It has taught us much. You may enter the vault if you wish but you will need to charge the Crystal before it will speak. For that you need... what is it again... ah yes, the Convergence. Take this Id Convergence Blueprint. You will need to empower it though.' You receive 1 x Empty Id Convergence Blueprint A tall Obelisk made of cyan crystal stands before you. As you look you see an unlit Spiral hovering within it's depths. You hold the Empowered Id Convergence in your hands, not really knowing what you should do, you step closer to the Obelisk. As you do so, light streams from the Convergence into the Obelisk. The Spiral inside the Obelisk starts to shine then turn slowly. Suddenly Darkfire engulfs the Obelisk. The familiar shape of an Echo forms within the fire, 'Why have you disturbed me... Who are you, you are not of the Spiral..' A bolt of black energy shoots out of the fire and throws you across the small chamber. The Convergence falls from your hands and shatters on the stone floor, cutting the light-stream. The fire goes out and within the Obelisk the Spiral gently fades and slows it's turning – then stops. You lay on the stone floor gasping for breath. In time the pain recedes and you slowly rise to your feet. The Echo used the Ullgath in Netherdeep to pollute the caves with the Eumycotah Tangler. You guess that the Echo are using the Spiral for their own ends as well. You must find out what they are doing. Maybe the Gibbering Adept might give you a clue.' The Adept is gazing at a Spiral on the opposite wall. Slowly you step into the Gibbering Adepts line of vision. You patiently stand there hoping he will notice you. After a time you watch a frown cross his face and wonder if this was such a good idea. The Adept then sees you and grins manically, 'Did you manage to Empower your Convergence?' You nod, and thank him for his help. Pride glows in his face. 'Knowledge is best learned when discovered by oneself. Someone told me that once... Can't quite place it...' You know that is the kind of thing Garion would say, but you don't want to upset him. You tell him you met the man in the Darkfire. The Adept tilts his head to one side, 'The Altus are not as gentle as the stories tell. But then they generally extrapolate what is, into what we want them to be. Are we to move into the next Area of the Sanctuary? The defective Altus artifacts are indeed difficult to destroy. We had such trouble with the Guardian of the Causeway. But we defeated them eventually.' You suddenly understand what is going on. Why should the Echo bother to capture the Sanctuary when they can get these Students to do it for them! You shake your head, 'No, I was just making conversation.' The Adept grins again, then stares into space. You slowly, step out of his vision and walk away. You should return to Garion and tell him your news. Graion is proudly showing his Darkfire Gladius to the Student when you return. 'Did you contact the Spiral Leader?' Garion notices your tone. 'What is wrong?' You describe the large Cyan Crystal and getting it to work. Garion listens intently, his face changes from fascination to horror when you describe the Echo appearing and the manipulation of his Students. When you have finished he stands in silence for a long time. 'I must see this Obelisk for myself Unit. You give him a copy of the Empty Id Convergence Blueprint and tell him to be careful, these Echo are not to be trusted. Garion chuckles, 'That's an understatement, these Echo are tricky. Go on, I'll catch up with you later in the Colonnade when I'm done here. Garion stands with his Gladius drawn, at his feet the Student lays bleeding. He is busy casting Regain to renew his strength. The Old Purist nods at you, 'We are fine for the moment, those Pillars gave us a shock that's all. It would be best if you could find way to de-activate them.' A tall pillar looms menacingly before you. Beams of light scan the area constantly looking for trespassers. One of the beams hits you. A hollow voice booms from the Pillar, 'No Colonnade Pass detected. Defenses are now put on Full alert.' The Control Column's light beams falls on you, you hold the Colonnade Pass before you and the beam stops for a second. The hollow voice whispers 'Pass accepted.' Now that you have managed to de-activate the Colonnades defenses you should return and inform Garion. Garion is helping the Student to his feet when you arrive back, 'Did you find a way to de-activate those Pillars?' Relief floods across the Students face, Garion gives him a withering look, 'I told you to be patient.' The Old Purist smiles at you, 'My Student is still recovering from his injuries. Don't wait for us, we'll catch up with you later.' How Garion got ahead of you you'll never know. But that isn't the issue now, for he is battling a strange floating Sphere. Garion shouts over his shoulder, 'Don't worry about me my friend. I can hold my own. But my Student has run out of Psi so I need to protect him. He also tells me that the Naos holds the Mind of the Sanctuary. If we are to get out of this we need to talk to it. But we can't get past these Spheres. Can you clear the way? You must destroy 60 Altus Spheres of Ages to clear the way. Garion hands the Student some spare Mind Shards, 'Did you clear the way to the Naos?' The Student is shaky and finds it difficult to stand, 'I told him to conserve his Psi, but he just wouldn't listen.' Garion puts his arm round him and lifts him to his feet. 'I take it that the Naos is near here?' You nod and explain that the Naos is just to the south. 'Ok – we are ready, lead the way Unit.' The Naos is one of the smallest areas in the Sanctuary. Garion looks around, concern etched onto his face. 'Is this it? There is no other way out?' The old Purist looks at you in disbelief, 'Of course that's a problem. I take it you have been extracting Components from the Entities? Have you noticed anything strange from the Components taken from the Echo?' For the first time you consider this, 'Now you mention it, there have been several references to dimensional things, Dimensional Scarring, Dimensional Warp Trace. I hadn't really thought about it.' Garion looks to the heavens, 'You know why that is? Maybe the Echo are from - I don't know, a different Dimension!' He throws up his hands in frustration, 'Did anything strange happened to you just before you entered the Darkfire (Edge)?' You think back and bashfully describe the feeling of falling just after standing on the Darkfire Glyph back in Netherdeep. Seeing the massive shining Obelisk standing in the dark. Then being pulled along as if in a stream before the glimpse of the gigantic building resting in the stars. Just before being swallowed by a ball of light. Garion goggles at you, 'Incredible! I wish I'd seen that! So you felt like you were in a stream... I would guess that the Obelisk might be connected to the Sanctuary of Ages. I am fairly sure that the Darkfire regions we were in were constructed by the Echo themselves. It's as if they are trying to acclimatise themselves to our world. But I do know that we are absolutely in a different dimension. Sigma is not just outside the Sanctuary. I don't know what is outside the Sanctuary and frankly I don't think it will be healthy to find out. So if there is no other way out, we might be stuck. Our only option might be to go back to the Darkfire (Edge) and go through the Glyph you came through. But I felt a powerful Entity at the other side. I don't really want to be unconscious at the feet of a murderous Echo. There has to be another way out of here, please go look for it.' You wander the Naos hoping to find a way out. You suddenly come across a large Crystal Orb wreathed in Darkfire. You step closer to the Orb. The Darkfire covers it completely. You know that that the Darkfire cannot be a good thing and are just wondering how to get rid of it when you hear a hissing sound behind you. Instinct takes over and you dive to the left. The biggest Echo you have ever seen stands before you. It looks at you with a killers stare. You must kill the Echo Decimator (Elite) to survive. You return to the Orb of the Mind, to investigate it further you will need to kill the Echo Decimator (Elite) who seems to be protecting it. The Decimator lays dead at your feet, the fight was a short but painful. You bind up your wounds then turn you mind back to the Orb. The fire burns silent and without warmth. You know that to touch it would probably kill you. In frustration you stare at the curtain of Darkfire. Then a memory pops into your mind. You remember the Ullgath Monk laughing at you whilst he pushed the Wheel of Flame on top of a rune on the floor of his Holding Cell. The curtain of Darkfire evaporated instantly. You look carefully at where the Darkfire touches the floor. You start to panic when you find no rune, but then see that there is not just one curtain of Flame, but two. The inner curtain has the rune. It seems to be linked the the outer curtain through tendrils of flame. How are you going to reach the rune through the outer curtain? In anger you throw down your backpack. There is a sharp 'chink' as it hits the floor. Puzzled by the sound you look at what caused it. You see the Echo Keystaff strapped to your backpack. A grin spreads across your face. You untie the Keystaff and holding it by the long handle, ease it through the outer curtain and drop the Wheel of Flame onto the rune in the inner curtain. The Darkfire shimmers then evaporates into thin air. The Orb of the Mind hangs in the air before you. You see a Spiral form in it's center, then after a few seconds it starts to spin slowly. The Orb of the Mind slowly begins to shine with an inner light. Then a voice echoes in you head, 'I cannot access parts of the Sanctuary, there are corrupted sectors. What are your instructions?' The Orb pulses with waves of streaming light, 'Datum Settings reset in 10 seconds.' There is a sense of falling – everything goes black. You wake up with pain ripping through your bones and joints. You grit you teeth against the familiar torment. You should go back to Garion and see if he is all right. You stagger through the Naos, Garion is waking as you return. Garion gazes up at you through a haze of pain. 'I take it we shifted through a dimensional barrier?' You nod, 'I got the Sanctuary to reset it's Datum settings. I think that maybe those settings are back on Sigma. We can but hope.' Hope flares in Garions eyes. 'That's fantastic news, we are home free!' You help Garion up to his feet, 'Yeah, we can hope so.' you mumble noncommittally. Garion laughs at you. 'Oh come on Unit, I can get my Students out of this nightmare. We can simply walk out of here. We've won, what can possibly go wrong!' You sigh deeply, 'You haven't been hanging round me for long...' You receive 502,883 Xp + 32 Skill Points Category:Missions